The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Death row inmate criticises state of humanity before being gassed
Killer ate a final meal of Waffle House steak and eggs before execution that was ‘22 minutes of torture’
A DEATH ROW prisoner used his final words to say “humanity had taken a step backwards” before he was killed in a prolonged suffocation condemned as torture.
Kenneth Eugene Smith shook and writhed for two minutes on Thursday night as his mask filled with the nitrogen gas, witnesses said, despite Alabama saying his death would be quick and painless.
The convicted killer is said to have remained conscious, breathing heavily and gasping for a further eight minutes as his sons and crying wife watched.
“Tonight, Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards,” Smith said in his final words. “I’m leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for supporting me. Love all of you.”
Smith, 58, was the first person to be killed with nitrogen in a US execution as prisons run out of lethal injection drugs. He was not pronounced dead until 8.25pm, 22 minutes after the gas had been administered.
Steve Marshall, Alabama’s attorney general, insisted that the execution had “proved” nitrogen gas was “an effective and humane method of execution”.
The US Supreme Court denied Smith a last-minute reprieve on Thursday evening after state lawyers insisted he would lose consciousness in seconds and die in minutes.
Sonia Sotomayor, one of three liberal justices who disagreed with the six conservatives who backed the execution, said: “Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before.”
The United Nations’ human rights commissioner last week branded the method, officially termed nitrogen hypoxia, as “torture” and urged the state not to use it.
Smith was strapped to a gurney at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, as the nitrogen gas was pumped into a mask he was wearing. The state said the mask would be airtight but witnesses claimed they could hear gas coming out of it, probably prolonging the suffocation.
The Rev Jeff Hood, a Catholic chaplain who ministered to Smith, said the execution was the “worst thing” he had ever witnessed. “Unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama,” he said through tears.
He said Smith had eaten a final meal of T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs from the Waffle House chain. His last meal before a lethal injection attempt in 2022 had been fried catfish and shrimp.
Lee Hedgepeth, a reporter who witnessed the death, said: “I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas.”
John Hamm, the commissioner of the Alabama department of corrections, said Smith’s prolonged suffering was his own fault. “It appeared Smith was holding his breath as long as he could,” he said. “So nothing was out of the ordinary for what we were expecting.” ‘He didn’t ask Mama how to suffer. They just did it. They stabbed her – multiple times’
Asked about Smith’s writhing, he added: “That was all expected and was in the side-effects that we’ve seen or researched on nitrogen hypoxia.”
Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after being found guilty, along with two others, of murdering Elizabeth Sennett, a preacher’s wife, in her home in 1988.
Her son, Charles Sennett Jr, said he had little sympathy for Smith.
“Some of these people out there say, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to suffer like that’,” he told Waay-TV. “Well, he didn’t ask Mama how to suffer. They just did it. They stabbed her – multiple times.”